Is

How to spell is

2 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce is

What does is mean?

1. verbThe third person singular present form of 'be', used to state what someone or something currently is or does.

Is in a sentence

• The report is due on my desk by Friday.

• She is the manager of the downtown branch.

Where does is come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This tiny word descends directly from Old English 'is', the third person singular present of the verb 'beon' (to be), and it has barely changed in well over a thousand years. Its deeper roots reach back to the Proto-Germanic 'isti' and beyond that to a Proto-Indo-European root 'es-', meaning simply 'to be' or 'to exist'. That same ancient root surfaces in the Latin 'est' and the German 'ist', which is why so many European languages have a strikingly similar little word for the same idea. Because 'is' came down to English as a fixed, inherited form rather than being built from parts, it never picked up the spelling complications that trip people up in longer words. For a fluent adult it is one of the most automatic words in the language, and its single-syllable, two-letter shape leaves no room for ambiguity.

How the word is built

• is (third person singular present of the verb 'be'; an irregular form with no separable prefix or suffix)